Movies Critics Hate but Audiences Love Now Streaming

Movie fans often rely on the work of professional critics to determine which of the thousands of movies released each year are worth their time. And while critical consensus is generally in line with audiences’ likes or dislikes, sometimes the tastes of critics and audiences diverge.

24/7 Tempo has identified 25 films that audiences love but critics hate that are now available to watch on streaming platforms. In order to do so, we created an index based on the disparity between audience and critic ratings based on reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and the Internet Movie Database. Streaming availability is based on data from JustWatch.

Many of the films with the greatest differences in critical and audience appreciation would be considered low brow. Light-hearted comedies and over-the-top action flicks do not always aim for lofty intellectual goals but exist as unpretentious entertainment for movie lovers. Critics — who tend to look for more than just entertainment and review the movie’s artistic qualities — rarely praise these films.

Certain filmmakers who specialize in such movies have received more critical scorn than others, despite being loved by fans. Director Dennis Dugan has two films that appear on our list. Actors David Spade and Hilary Duff both star in two. Poor reviews haven’t prevented these creators from growing their audiences and making financially successful movies. In fact, the majority of films presented here outgrossed their production budgets at the box office.

Despite the positive attributes these films may possess, one would be hard-pressed to call them superior to the movies that both audiences and critics agree on as being great. Here are the 100 best movies of all time.

To determine the movies critics hate but audiences love that are now available on streaming platforms, 24/7 Tempo calculated the difference between each film’s average user rating and average critic rating. The average user rating was calculated as an average of a given film’s Rotten Tomatoes’ average audience rating and Internet Movie Database’s average user rating weighted by the number of votes for each. For critic rating we used the average critic score from Rotten Tomatoes, not the “Freshness rating,” which refers to the share of critics who gave each film a positive review. To be considered, each film needed to have at least 10,000 user ratings on IMDb, 5,000 audience ratings on Rotten Tomatoes, and 10 approved Tomatometer critic reviews.

Streaming availability was determined based on data from JustWatch, collected July 13, 2020.